Jean-Baptiste Madeleine

Climate scientist at the Dynamic Meteorology Lab, LMD/IPSL, Paris
Physics lecturer in the Department of Earth Sciences, Sorbonne university, Paris

I study clouds, especially cold clouds that form below freezing temperatures, and work on their representation in the LMDZ climate model, which is a French atmospheric model used for climate change projections. Along with other international climate models, it serves as a basis for the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report by contributing to the CMIP project (Climate Model Intercomparison Project). Clouds are especially important in the climate system because they reflect a lot of sunlight and also absorb and emit a lot of infrared radiation. They can either amplify or reduce the current global warming depending on their change in opacity, altitude and detailed properties. It is therefore essential to represent them accurately in climate models.

"A model is always a simplified version of nature. And one must be humble about whatever happens in nature. Humble and open to challenge." Syukuro Manabe